Traveller's disappearance still a mystery

A West Australian coroner has been unable to determine the cause of death of a 24-year-old man who disappeared while travelling with a seemingly identity-thieving friend.

The WA Coroner's Court heard on Wednesday that William Maddison French was in a satisfactory state of health when he vanished on December 17, 1997.

His on again, off again girlfriend Clare Humphries last heard from him that day when he made a reverse charge telephone call from Carnarvon on the state's central coast.

A despondent-sounding Mr French told her he was going to travel around Australia with a friend he had met at a hostel, Miro Petrovich Dragovich.

Mr Dragovich was in trouble with the police before he died on June 19, 2003 - without providing any information relating to Mr French's disappearance.

The last person to see Mr French was an officer at the Friends of Citizens Under Stress welfare agency in Carnarvon, who said he spoke of hitch hiking and sharing costs, and having treatment for manic depression.

His disappearance was initially treated as a missing person inquiry but was upgraded to a suspected homicide in December 1998 after police became aware of evidence suggesting Mr Dragovich had used Mr French's identity at a backpackers' hostel in Kununurra.